CHEMISTRY  Or  WOOD 
VIII.  Further  Studies  of  Sapiuccd  and 

Heartuuccd 


June  1926 


No.  R917 


L  OF  FORM  Li 


UNIVERSITY  OF  FLC 


UNITED  STATES  DEPARTMENT  OF  AGRICULTURE 
FOREST    SERVICE 
FOREST    PRODUCTS    LABORATORY 
Madison,    Wisconsin 

In  Cooperation  with  the  University  of  Wisconsin 


Digitized  by  the  Internet  Archive 

in  2013 


http://archive.org/details/woodfOOfore 


CHEMISTRY  OF  WOOrA 
VIII. — Further  Studies  of  Sapwood  and  Heartwood 

By 

G-.  J.  RITTER,  Chemist 
and 
L.  C.  FLECK,  Associate  Chemist 


The  present  paper  represents  a  continuation  of  a  previous  study  of 
the  chemistry  of  sapwood  and  heartwood-  to  determine  whether  any  additional 
generalizations  can  he  made  in  grouping  hardwoods  and  softwoods  on  the 
"basis  of  chemical  differences  between  sapwood  and  heartwood.   The  methods 
of  analysis  are  identical  with  those  used  in  former  experiments  of  this 
series. 2  The  determinations  were  made  in  duplicate,  and  the  average  of 
each  pair  of  determinations  is  shown  in  the  accompanying  table. 


Discussion  of  Results 

o 
The  results  confirm  the  conclusions  stated  in  the  sixth  paper—  of 

this  series,  to  the  effect  that  softwoods  form  a  single  group  having  high 

relative  amounts  of  extractives  in  the  heartwood.  Also,  with  only  one 

exception,  the  softwoods  here  reported  exhibit  another  characteristic  in 

common  with  those  reported  in  paper  VI,  in  that  the  high  extractives  in 

the  heartwood  are  accompanied  "by  low  percentages  of  lignin  and  cellulose. 

In  the  exceptional  case  of  white  spruce  the  lignin  and  cellulose  content 

is  approximately  the  same  in  sapwood  and  heartwood.  The  hardwoods,  also 

in  accord  with  the  findings  of  the  earlier  paper,—  are  distributed  between 

two  groups  having  high  relative  amounts  of  extractives  in  the  sapwood  and 

heartwood,  respectively. 

The  acetic  acid  obtained  by  acid  hydrolysis  is  uniformly  higher  in 
the  sapwood  than  in  the  heartwood  of  both  hardwoods  and  softwoods. 

By  the  results  here  reported  more  species  have  been  fitted  into  the 
scheme  of  classification  advanced  in  the  sixth  paper  of  the  series. 

^Presented  before  the  Division  of  Cellulose  Chemistry  at  the  66th  meeting 
of  the  American  Chemical  Society,  Milwaukee,  Vis.,  Sept.  10  to  Ik,    1923 . 

-Industrial  &  Engineering  Chemistry,  15,  1055  (1923). 


^Ibid.,  Ik,    1050  (1922). 


Rept.  No.  R917  -1- 


Whether  additional  groups  of  softwoods  exist  is  a  question  that  can  he 
answered  only  after  a  larger  number  of  species  have  been  analyzed.   Com- 
bining results  for  the  hardwoods  listed  in  the  sixth  and  the  present  paoer, 
it  is  seen  that  Group  A  (with  high  extractives  in  the  sapwood)  includes 
white  ash,  pignut  hickory,  red  alder,  red  mulberry,  sugar  maple,  and  catalpa; 
Group  B  (with  high  extractives  in  the  heartwood)  includes  yellow-poplr.r, 
yellow  birch,  white  oak,  red  oak,  locust,  and  eucalyptus. 


Conclusions 


1.  In  softwoods  the  water,  ether,  and  alkali  extracts  are  higher 
in  the  heartwood  than  in  the  sapwood,  and  the  cellulose  and  lignin  are  cor- 
respondingly lower  in  the  heartwood  (except  in  white  spruce,  in  which 
cellulose-lignin  content  is  approximately  the  same  in  the  two  bands  of 
growth) . 

2.  On  the  basis  of  water,  ether,  and  alkali  extractives,  hardwoods 
are  divided  into  two  groups:   (a)  those  with  high  extractives  in  the  sap- 
wood,  and  (b)  those  with  high  extractives  in  the  heartwood.   The  former 
have  low  cellulose  in  the  sapwood,  the  latter  low  cellulose  in  the  heart- 
wood. 

3.  Acetic  acid  by  hydrolysis  is  higher  in  the  sapwood  than  in  the 
heartwood  of  all  the  woods. 


Rept.  No.  R917  -2- 


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UNIVERSITY  OF  FLORIDA 

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